Technical Field
The present description relates, in a general manner, to electronic circuits and, more particularly, to circuits using a non-volatile memory. The present description is, for example, aimed at the management of the storage of information (data and programs) in a non-volatile memory, such as in a flash memory.
Description of the Related Art
Integrated circuits may comprise circuits or information (referred to as secret information) which are considered as sensitive in view of the security of the data that they are processing, such as authentication keys, signatures, etc., or algorithms that they are using, such as encryption or decryption algorithms. Generally, such information must not be communicated nor be detectable by third parties or by unauthorized circuits. In particular, it sometimes must be ensured that the location of this information within a non-volatile memory must not be detected.
The techniques for analysis of the operation of an integrated circuit are becoming more and more powerful and hackers benefit from analysis techniques that are increasingly sophisticated. In particular, attacks via hidden channels (analysis of the power consumption of the circuit, of its electromagnetic radiation, etc.) are increasingly sophisticated.